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TITLE: BOLIVIA HUMAN RIGHTS PRACTICES, 1994
AUTHOR: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
DATE: FEBRUARY 1995
BOLIVIA
A multiparty democracy with an elected president and bicameral
legislature, Bolivia has separate executive, legislative, and
judicial branches with an attorney general independent of all
three. In August the Congress approved constitutional
amendments affecting election of future presidents and
congresses, lowering the voting age, reforming the judicial
system, and creating a human rights ombudsman office and a
court of constitutionality.
The Army, Air Force, Navy, and National Police (including the
UMOPAR rural mobile patrols) comprise the security forces.
They are generally responsible to the civilian authorities, but
some elements of the security forces committed incidents of
human rights abuse.
Rich in minerals and hydrocarbons, Bolivia has a per capita
gross domestic product of about $1,000; 55 percent of its
inhabitants live below the poverty line. Many Bolivians lack
services such as water, power, sewage, and elementary health
care, while traditional agricultural practices and weak
infrastructure make poverty endemic in rural areas. The
Government stressed debt reduction, exports, foreign
investment, privatization, and a freer banking system to
promote development. Real economic growth was estimated at
about 4 percent in 1994, the same as 1993.
The most pervasive human rights abuse continued to be prolonged
incarceration of detainees caused by inefficiency and
corruption in the judicial system. The Government's efforts to
combat well-entrenched and violent drug traffickers produced
some abuses, including an extrajudicial killing, thefts, and
drug-related corruption. Other abuses included mistreatment of
detainees and prisoners (exacerbated by failure to punish
perpetrators), substandard prison conditions, violence and
discrimination against women and indigenous people, and inhuman
working conditions in the mining industry.
RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
Section 1 Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including
Freedom from:
a. Political and Other Extrajudicial Killing
There were no reports of politically motivated killings. There
were two documented cases in which government forces committed
extrajudicial killings. In one, a patrol of soldiers under a
junior officer beat to death a Spanish citizen following an
argument. At the urging of the Foreign Ministry, the armed
forces investigated; the officer and five soldiers were at
year's end on trial for murder in a civilian court. In another
case, on August 18, an UMOPAR patrol killed a cocaine
laboratory worker, Felipe Perez Ortiz, during a
counternarcotics operation in the coca-growing Chapare region.
Initial police reports indicated Perez died in a gun battle,
but further investigation showed he died in custody from a
gunshot to the head. The members of the patrol were detained;
the policeman suspected of the actual shooting, however,
"escaped" September 3 under circumstances not yet clarified.
The guards on duty at the time of the escape were arrested but
have not yet been tried.
Following a 7-year trial in absentia for murder, human rights
abuses, and other crimes, in April 1993 the court sentenced
former dictator General Luis Garcia Meza to the maximum 30-year
prison term. Brazilian authorities arrested Garcia Meza and
approved a Bolivian extradition request in 1994, but his
lawyers appealed, and Brazil had not returned him to Bolivian
custody by the end of the year.
b. Disappearance
There were no reports of politically motivated disappearances.
c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading
Treatment or Punishment
The constitutional prohibition on torture is generally
honored. There were, nevertheless, credible charges of cruel
and degrading treatment of detainees and prisoners by police
and prison personnel, particularly in connection with a major
coca eradication effort in the Chapare region. The Government
sent an investigatory team there, but no security personnel
were tried for such acts; lack of evidence and fear prevented
cases from going to trial. Some rural leaders exaggerated
reports of UMOPAR abuses, making it hard to distinguish between
legitimate complaints and political agitation. In the past,
however, there were credible reports of UMOPAR mistreatment of
detainees (e.g., pushing, kicking). Allegations of more
serious abuses, such as rape, could not be confirmed. UMOPAR
has augmented the human rights component of its training.
Allegations also resurfaced that ex-officers in police
intelligence had in past years tortured captured terrorists.
The congressional human rights committee investigated the
charges but announced no conclusions. The accusations seem
politically motivated and not credible.
Prison conditions vary from luxurious to wretched. Ability to
pay can determine cell size, visiting privileges, day-pass
eligibility, sentence, and place of confinement. Cell prices
range from $20 to $5,000, paid to prior occupants or to
prisoners who control cell blocks. In the poorest parts of La
Paz' San Pedro prison, for example, inmates occupy tiny cells
(3 by 4 by 6 feet) with no ventilation, lighting, or beds.
Crowding in some "low-rent" sections obliges inmates to sleep
sitting up. Children up to 6 years old may live with an
incarcerated parent; authorities have worked to get children
out of prisons, but many have nowhere else to go. A member of
the Bolivian Permanent Assembly for Human Rights (APDHB)
asserted that approximately 400 children live with their
parents in prison. Well-financed drug traffickers and
terrorists often enjoy relatively lavish accommodations and
visiting rights. Chonchocoro prison, outside La Paz, is built
to hold the most dangerous criminals. These, however, often
have means to get transfers, for "medical" reasons, to less
secure facilities.
d. Arbitrary Arrest, Detention, or Exile
Denial of justice through prolonged detention remains the most
pervasive human rights problem. Judicial corruption, a
shortage of public defenders, inadequate case-tracking
mechanisms, and complex criminal justice procedures keep
persons incarcerated for months, or even years, before trial.
Some estimates claim that up to 85 percent of inmates have yet
to go to trial. The Constitution provides for judicial
determination of the legality of detention. Prisoners are
released if a judge rules detention illegal, but the process
can take months. Prisoners may see a lawyer, but public
defenders are overburdened. Bail exists, except in some drug
cases, and is generally granted. Many persons, however, cannot
afford it. Persons tried under Law 1008 (the counternarcotics
law) must await Supreme Court confirmation or rejection of
lower courts' verdicts--a process involving severe delays.
Acquittal does not guarantee release from prison. Thousands
remain in jail for months or even years after receiving "not
guilty" verdicts because they cannot pay for release papers,
other forms, and lawyers' fees. The Government has begun to
address the problem of delay of justice, including
constitutional reforms to streamline the judicial system. The
Minister of Justice vowed to free those who have spent long
periods imprisoned without trial or were found not guilty but
stay incarcerated for inability to pay fees and fines. At his
urging, the legislature approved a government proposal to end
imprisonment for debt. (The law had provided that debtors may
be imprisoned until they pay civil damages, as well as court
costs and fees.) The Government freed some 300 persons by
year's end, some of whom served as many as 10 years in prison
for debts as small as $50.
Exile is not used as a punishment.
e. Denial of Fair Public Trial
The Constitution provides for the right to a fair public trial,
and the authorities generally respect it. Investigation,
trial, and appeal procedures, however, take so long that
prisoners can serve more time than the sentence for the crime
with which they are charged. Defendants have the right to an
attorney, to confront witnesses, to present evidence, and to
appeal judicial decisions. The authorities generally honor
these rights. Although the law provides for a defense attorney
at public expense if needed, one is not always available. The
highly formal and corrupt judicial system makes it difficult
for poor, illiterate persons to have access to courts and legal
redress.
Corruption and intimidation in the judicial system remain major
problems. Poor pay and working conditions help make judges and
prosecutors susceptible to bribes to free suspected drug
traffickers and their property. In July the acting Attorney
General, under circumstances that suggested strongly he had
been bribed or threatened, recommended against the extradition
of several traffickers. After a long impeachment trial in
Congress, two Supreme Court justices, including the Court's
president, were found guilty of malfeasance and removed from
the Court.
APBDH, the major local human rights group, asserted that there
were about 20 "political prisoners," but the Government claimed
they were terrorists involved in violent crimes, including
murders and bombings. Available evidence supported the
Government's claim.
f. Arbitrary Interference with Privacy, Family, Home, or
Correspondence
The Constitution provides for the sanctity of the home and the
privacy of citizens' lives, and the Government usually
respected these provisions. There were credible allegations of
UMOPAR abuses, including thefts of property from homes and
illegal searches. Opponents charged that security services
conducted illegal phone taps and other surveillance; these
charges could not be confirmed. The Government respects the
rights of individuals to determine family size, religion, and
political affiliations.
Section 2 Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
a. Freedom of Speech and Press
No legal or institutional barriers to freedom of speech and
press exist. State-owned and private radio and television
stations operate freely. Newspapers are privately owned; most
adopt antigovernment positions. There were credible charges of
politicians and drug traffickers paying newsmen for favorable
coverage, even though professional organizations rejected such
accusations.
The Government respects academic freedom, and the law grants
public universities autonomous status. Some university-based
Marxist groups seek to deny academic freedom and impose their
political agenda on the education process. They have
threatened to paralyze the educational system to protest the
Government's reform plan, which moves resources from the
universities to primary education.
b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association
The law provides for the rights of peaceful assembly and
association, and the authorities respect them in practice.
Labor, political, and student groups carried out numerous
demonstrations and rallies in La Paz and other cities. As a
rule, authorities try to avoid confronting demonstrators. The
Government routinely granted permits for marches and rallies.
c. Freedom of Religion
Roman Catholicism predominates; the Constitution recognizes it
as the official religion. Citizens may practice the religion
of their choice. About 400 religious groups, mostly
Protestant, are active. Missionary groups must register with
the Foreign Ministry as nongovernmental organizations (NGO's);
no indication exists that they received treatment different
from that given other NGO's. Despite Catholic Church
criticism, the Ministry disallowed no registrations.
d. Freedom of Movement Within the Country, Foreign
Travel, Emigration, and Repatriation
No restrictions exist on travel. The Government permits
emigration, guarantees the right to return, and does not revoke
citizenship for political reasons.
Section 3 Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens
to Change Their Government
Bolivia is a multiparty democracy with an elected president and
an independent, bicameral legislature. Political parties
ranging from far left to moderate right function openly.
National elections are held every 4 years; the June 1993
elections were free and fair, resulting in a peaceful,
constitutional change of government. Suffrage is universal and
obligatory.
No legal impediments exist to women or indigenous people
voting, holding political office, or rising to political
leadership. Nevertheless, the number of women and indigenous
people who have prominent positions in politics remains small,
but with notable exceptions such as Vice President Victor Hugo
Cardenas, an Aymara Indian, and La Paz mayor Monica Medina.
The "popular participation" law passed in April will give local
communities more influence in decisionmaking. Its impact has
been greatest in rural areas, where neighbors formed 1,500
basic territorial organizations and small communities created
47 centralized municipal associations, which have legal status
to receive and spend public funds, largely on local development
projects.
Section 4 Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations
of Human Rights
The Government is sensitive to the views of domestic and
international human rights organizations and discusses their
concerns with them. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch/
Americas, and the Washington Office on Latin America follow the
local human rights scene; monitors have visited without
hindrance. The House of Deputies' Human Rights Commission gets
considerable political and media attention. The Catholic
Church, the APDHB, foreign NGO's, labor and student
organizations, and the media monitor human rights issues. As
part of a large counternarcotics operation, the Government
expelled two foreign human rights monitors for immigration law
violations, involvement with pro-coca activities and groups,
and possible links to terrorists. The Government's accusations
were credible; there was no evidence that they were expelled
because of human rights activities.
Section 5 Discrimination Based on Race, Sex, Religion,
Disability, Language, or Social Status
The Constitution prohibits discrimination based upon race, sex,
language, religion, political or other opinion, origin, or
economic or social condition. Nonetheless, there is
significant discrimination against women and indigenous people.
Women
Women generally do not enjoy a social status equal to that of
men. Many poor women do not know their legal rights;
traditional prejudices and social conditions remain obstacles
to advancement. Women generally earn less than men for equal
work. Young girls often leave school to work at home or on the
economy. A study by the National Statistical Institute (INE)
found that, as of the 1992 census, 27.7 percent of women were
illiterate, compared to 11.8 percent of men. Although no legal
impediments exist, women hold few professional positions.
Violence against women is pervasive. An INE study covering the
July 1992-June 1993 period found that 40 percent of all
reported violent attacks in La Paz department were perpetrated
against women. Ninety-five percent of the attackers were male;
in 71 percent of the cases the attacker was closely related to
the victim. Of these domestic violence complaints, 52 percent
involved physical mistreatment and 48 percent were related to
psychological abuse. A total of 11,069 complaints of violence
against women were registered in La Paz during this period.
The Subsecretary for Women's Affairs in the Ministry of Human
Development estimates that 95 percent of all cases of violence
against women go unpunished. Women's rights advocates point
out that the Penal Code provides that no punishment is
applicable when "injuries are light" and were inflicted by a
close family member (including in-laws) living with the victim.
The Government has developed a four-part plan for the
protection of women. It implemented the first part on October
24 by promulgating Law 1559 which adopted the Inter-American
Convention for the Prevention, Punishment, and Eradication of
Violence Against Women as Bolivian law. Subsequent steps
include a law against domestic violence, establishment of
comprehensive legal services offices to help and support women,
revisions to school curriculums, and educating health care
providers about the appropriate manner of dealing with female
patients.
Children
According to the Subsecretary for Generational Affairs of the
Ministry of Human Development, approximately 40 percent of the
urban population under 18 years of age (about one million
persons) is mistreated; he estimated that the proportion is
higher in rural areas. Statistics from the Ministry of
Planning's education reform team note that in rural areas, only
0.7 percent of girls and 1.4 percent of boys finish high
school; in urban areas, 26 percent of girls and 31 percent of
boys do so. The 1994 Educational Reform Act seeks to better
the situation of children; even optimistic observers, however,
note the reforms will need years to make an impact.
The old practice of "criadito" service still persists in some
parts of Bolivia. Criaditos are indigenous children of both
sexes, usually 10 to 12 years old, whom their parents indenture
to middle- and upper-class families to perform household work
in exchange for education, clothing, room, and board. There
are no controls over the benefits to or treatment of the
criaditos, who may become virtual slaves for the years of their
indenture.
Indigenous People
Indians, who comprise a majority of the population, lack the
opportunity to participate in decisions affecting their lands,
culture, traditions, and the allocation of natural resources.
The Government has placed rights for indigenous people on its
reform agenda, which includes educational reform and popular
participation. The 1994 constitutional reforms acknowledge
Bolivia as a "multiethnic, pluricultural society" and allow the
indigenous nations to assume ownership of traditional lands.
By year's end, however, few if any results were apparent.
Discrimination against and abuses of indigenous people
continued. The Indian majority generally remains at the low
end of the socioeconomic scale, facing severe disadvantages in
health, life expectancy, education, income, literacy, and
employment. Lack of education, poor farming and mining
methods, indigenous cultural practices, inability to speak
Spanish, and societal biases keep the indigenous people poor.
Construction workers, mostly indigenous, are often fired before
3 months' service, relieving the employer of the obligation to
provide severance pay and other benefits. The same employer
then rehires the workers for another short period.
People with Disabilities
No specific legislation protects the disabled but some limited
steps have been taken: for example, the new electoral law
makes arrangements for blind voters. In general, however,
there are no special services nor infrastructure to accommodate
the handicapped. Social attitudes keep many disabled persons
at home from an early age, limiting their integration into
society.
Section 6 Worker Rights
a. The Right of Association
Workers may form and join organizations of their choosing. The
Labor Code requires prior governmental authorization to
establish a union, permits only one per enterprise, and allows
the Government to dissolve unions, but the Government has not
enforced these provisions in recent years. While the Code
denies civil servants the right to organize and bans strikes in
public services, including banks and public markets, nearly all
civilian government workers are unionized. In theory, the
Bolivian Labor Federation (COB) represents virtually the entire
work force; approximately one-half of the workers in the formal
economy belong to labor unions. Some members of the informal
economy also participate in labor organizations. Workers in
the private sector frequently exercise the right to strike.
Solidarity strikes are illegal, but the Government does not
prosecute those responsible nor impose penalties.
Significant strikes centered around annual negotiations over
salaries and benefits for public employees. When the
Government refused to accede to union demands, strikers
marched, set up roadblocks, and cut access to certain areas of
the Chapare region. Additional talks produced a settlement
favorable to the workers, and the strikes ended. Unions are
not independent of government and political parties. Most
parties have labor committees that try to influence union
activity, causing fierce political battles within unions. The
law allows unions to join international labor organizations.
The COB became an affiliate of the formerly Soviet-dominated
World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) in 1988.
b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively
Workers may organize and bargain collectively. In practice,
collective bargaining, defined as voluntary direct negotiations
between unions and employers without participation of the
Government, is limited. Consultations between government
representatives and labor leaders are common, but there are no
collective bargaining agreements as defined above. In state
industries, the union issues a list of demands and the
Government concedes some points. Private employers often use
public sector settlements as guidelines for their own
adjustments, and some private employers exceed what the
Government grants. The Government, conscious of International
Monetary Fund guidelines, rarely grants wage increases
exceeding inflation.
The law prohibits discrimination against union members and
organizers. Complaints go to the National Labor Court, which
can take a year or more to rule. Union leaders say problems
are often moot by the time the court rules.
Labor law and practice in the seven special duty-free zones are
the same as in the rest of Bolivia.
c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor
The law bars forced or compulsory labor. There were no cases
reported other than the criadito service described in Section 5.
d. Minimum Age for Employment of Children
The law prohibits employment of persons under 18 years of age
in dangerous, unhealthy, or immoral work. The Labor Code is
ambiguous on conditions of employment for minors aged 14 to 17;
it permits apprenticeship for those 12 to 14. This practice
has been criticized by the International Labor Organization;
the Government responded that it would present legislation
reforming this and other provisions of the Labor Code.
Responsibility for enforcing child labor provisions resides in
the Labor Ministry, but it generally does not enforce
provisions on employment of children. Urban children hawk
goods, shine shoes, and assist transport operators. Rural
children often work with parents from an early age. Children
are not generally employed in factories or formal businesses
but, when employed, often work the same hours as adults.
e. Acceptable Conditions of Work
The law establishes a minimum wage (about $38 per month),
bonuses, and fringe benefits. The minimum wage does not
provide a worker a decent standard of living, and most workers
earn more. Although the minimum wage falls below prevailing
wages in most jobs, certain fringe benefits are pegged to it.
The minimum wage does not cover about 20 percent of urban
workers--vendors and shoe polishers, for example--nor does it
cover farmers, some 30 percent of the working population.
Only half the urban labor force enjoys an 8-hour workday and a
workweek of 5 or 5 1/2 days, because the maximum workweek of 44
hours is not enforced. The Labor Ministry's Bureau of
Occupational Safety has responsibility for protection of
workers' health and safety, but such laws are poorly enforced.
Although the State Mining Corporation has an office charged
with safety, the mines, often old and using antiquated
equipment, are dangerous and unhealthy.
In a tradition dating from the Spanish conquest, employers in
the mining sector promote chewing of coca leaf with a catalyst
that serves to release the leaf's alkaloids, including
cocaine. Coca is promoted as a substitute for food, water, and
appropriate rest periods. In many cooperative mines, miners
earn less than $3 per 12-hour day. They work without helmets,
boots, or respirators in mines where toxic gases abound; they
buy their own supplies, including dynamite, have no scheduled
rest periods, and survive with little water and food.
Employers and others assure them coca leaf satisfies not only
nutritional needs but also suppresses hunger and thirst, makes
them strong, and protects them from toxic gases and silicosis.
Miners stay underground from 24 to 72 hours without
interruption. With no drinking water available in many mines,
miners drink urine. The promotion of coca chewing by some
employers, politicians, the COB, and persons having a financial
stake in the manufacture and sale of cocaine, contributes to
conditions of work that fall far below international labor and
human rights standards.
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